I Loaded the Mysticism Panel

Just as he was thinking this, the panel refreshed on its own.

[Technique Mastery Requirement Met]

[Stone Armor (Reversible)]

Richard’s eyes lit up.

This was the true payoff for all his diligent practice of `Stone Armor` these past few days.

The `Fog Wall Technique` wasn’t a proper `Technique`, so it couldn’t be reversed.

`Stone Armor` was the first and only respectable `Technique` he truly possessed so far.

Richard pressed [Confirm].

The reversal process had no external effects.

There was no light, no sound. Nothing in the alley changed visually.

But Richard could feel it. The flow of `Ether` in his body, long accustomed to moving from inside to out to solidify upon his person, had silently reversed course.

From outside to in.

The `Stonemason`’s protective prayer made the body as hard as a rock.

And the most fundamental attributes of a rock are hardness and weight.

The `Covering Armor` drew upon its hardness.

After the reversal, it would draw upon the rock’s weight instead.

As Richard thought this, the `Ether Flow` in his body gave a clear response.

Applying weight through a `Shadow` was, in essence, piling rocks onto the target’s `Shadow`.

When the `Shadow` became heavy, the body followed suit.

[Shadow Reversal Complete]

[New Technique Generated: Shadow Armor (Lorica Umbrae)]

[Effect: Using the target’s `Shadow` as a medium, applies an additional load to the target’s body.

Duration and intensity are positively correlated with `Stone Armor` proficiency and `Ether` consumption.]

[Restriction: `Casting` requires the target to have a `Shadow`. Cannot be cast in an environment with no light source.]

[Side Effect: During `Casting`, the `Caster` cannot use `Stone Armor`.]

Richard went over the description in his head.

`Stone Armor` and `Shadow Armor` were applications of the same `Technique` in two different directions.

Either inward, making oneself harder, or outward, making the opponent heavier.

You could only choose one direction at a time; offense and defense were mutually exclusive.

The light source restriction was also expected.

The `Technique Medium` was the `Shadow`. No light, no `Shadow`. No `Shadow`, no path for `Casting`.

But as Richard stared at the line "Cannot be cast in an environment with no light source," another thought popped into his head.

’The light source restriction is a current limitation.’

`Low Tier` `Techniques` almost all came with this kind of rigid prerequisite: "must have something," "must be somewhere," "must do something first."

`Stone Armor` couldn’t be separated from the `Gargoyle` in its early stages, the `Fog Wall Technique` couldn’t be separated from `Ashen Grass`, and even the simplest introductory `Breathing Technique` had to rely on visualizing the `Throne of the Sun` for `Anchoring`.

’But the limitation of a medium isn’t eternal. It’s just a crutch for when you’re not proficient enough.’

’So what about the "must have light" restriction?’

Richard’s train of thought began to slide forward.

If the current `Shadow Armor` was about transmitting `Ether` through the specific channel of "the target’s `Shadow`"...

’Then what is the essence of a `Shadow`?’

’It’s the `Lightless` area left behind after light is blocked by a physical object.’

’But in the world behind the `Curtain`, isn’t `Lightless` itself a kind of `Shadow`?’

’If one day my ability to control `Ether` improves further, could the `Developing` requirement for a `Shadow` as a medium be replaced?’

’If I could break free from the limitation of a physical `Shadow` and directly manipulate `Lightless` on the `Ether Layer`...’

’...then it wouldn’t just be "piling rocks on a target’s `Shadow`" anymore.’

’It would be directly applying weight to a whole area of darkness.’

Richard’s gaze swept around, landing on the corners of the alley steeped in shadow.

The entire alley’s dark areas would all be weighed down.

Someone walking in from the alley’s entrance would start to feel each step become heavier than the last as soon as they entered the shadows.

The further they walked, the more the heavy feeling would accumulate.

At a certain critical point, the weight would exceed the limit their bones could bear.

’Or, even more terrifyingly, I could turn a large area of darkness into weight and focus it all on a single target... ’

Richard couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

He was reminded of a very famous action manga from his past life.

One of the `Devil Fruits` in it had this kind of ability, creating a gravitational field through darkness.

’My line of thought just now was pretty similar to that.’

Of course, this was a very distant prospect.

At his current `Newcomer` stage, it would be a decent achievement just to make a target carry a few times their own body weight on their `Shadow`.

To reach the point of manipulating entire swaths of darkness, he would probably need to reach the `Minor Mastery` or even `Grand Mastery` level.

He remembered the "`Fragment`" tag on `Shadow Reversal` very clearly.

This tradition was incomplete in the world behind the `Curtain`. ’Perhaps I can find other `Fragments`?’

Having a direction to imagine was better than having no direction at all.

.........

「At nine in the morning, the `Sun` had yet to climb above the chimneys.」

Richard pushed open the small, worn door on the third floor’s east side of the library and placed his bookbag on the table closest to the wall.

He planned to spend all of his flexible time today in this small reading room.

Three items were spread out on the desk.

On the far left were his `Latin` notes. He still hadn’t fully digested the commentaries on `Virgil` that `Mr. Holland` had marked for him.

In the middle was an `Ancient Greek Language` correspondence chart. The thin sheet of paper `Mr. Hutton` had given him was held down by a paperweight.

On the far right was a thick notebook re-covered with kraft paper.

Tucked inside the notebook was all the raw material he had copied from the `Imperial University Library`.

Richard picked up the kraft paper notebook and opened it to the bookmarked page in the middle.

He had already deciphered the sections of the notebook related to `Seals` and promotion page by page. Now, he was consolidating the remaining parts.

The first deciphered section was titled *Curtain Weak Point Examination*.

In a dozen or so pages, the author had marked out all the known weak points across the entire `Old Continent`.

Richard traced the lines of text with the tip of his pencil.

The first type was what the author called "`Blood Soaking Points`."

These were locations on the earth’s surface where a great number of deaths had occurred.

The key stronghold that changed hands repeatedly during the three-hundred-year war in the `North`, the marketplace burned to the ground during the southern plagues, and even older cities swallowed by sandstorms or volcanic eruptions.

Death was cured into the land like `salt`. In the most concentrated spots, every step would give a `Highly Inspired` person a headache.

Richard underlined this paragraph.

According to this classification, the ruins of the old textile mill beneath the `Greenwood Playground` would count as a miniature `Blood Soaking Point`.

Its scale wasn’t large enough to make the author’s list, but its nature was similar.

The second type was called "Ritual Scars."

Ancient `Priests` repeatedly performed the same ritual in specific locations. Over hundreds or even thousands of years, the ritual itself carved grooves into the `Ether Layer`.

Later generations tore down the `Temples`, hauled away the stones, and tilled the foundations into farmland, but those grooves remained, not disappearing on their own.

The author gave an example.

In the heartland of the `Western Continent`, there was an oak forest where local farmers had cleared land for generations. Every year, their plows would turn up small bronze knives from the soil.

Those knives were all left behind by `Druids` and had been lying in the dirt for over a thousand years.

To this day, no birds nested in the forest, and foxes would go out of their way to avoid it.

The third type was "Drowned Lines."

This type was the most unique.

It wasn’t on land, but in the sea.

In certain sea regions, due to ocean currents, seabed topography, or other inexplicable reasons, shipwrecks had repeatedly occurred for centuries.

Each shipwreck dragged an entire vessel’s crew and cargo to the seafloor.

The sea swallowed sound, light, and time, but some things it could not swallow.

They sank to a certain depth and slowly fermented there.

The author specifically noted: The shipping lanes between the `Aegean Sea` and the `East Coast of the New Continent` are riddled with Drowned Lines.

Richard saw a `Shadow` of what wasn’t said in `Captain Harding`’s news story within these words.

The fourth type was "Where the Stars Descend."

The author only mentioned it in a footnote: Certain mountaintops, high towers, and isolated islands correspond with the world behind the `Curtain` under specific celestial phenomena.

The direction of these points was opposite to the first three.

The first three seeped upward from below, while Where the Stars Descend fell downward from above.

It was followed by a line of small text: "It is not recommended for any `Cultivator` below `Grand Mastery` to linger at such a point for more than a quarter of an hour."

Richard copied this section into his own notebook, adding some of his own thoughts after he finished.

’If it’s forbidden for those below `Grand Mastery`, does that mean `Grand Mastery` itself requires a ritual in a place like this?’

He turned a page in the notebook, entering the second section, *The Depths of the Curtain*.

This section was about the world behind the `Curtain`.

The author divided the depths behind the `Curtain` into three layers.

The first layer was the "Near Shore."

The Near Shore was the layer closest to the material world.

Most of the empty streets, non-existent rooms, and extra `Shadows` in the `Mirror` that those with `inspiration` occasionally glimpsed in their dreams were afterimages cast from the Near Shore.

The rules here were not much different from the material world; gravity, light, and a sense of time were basically maintained.

The Near Shore was the habitat of most `Wandering Spirit Bodies` and `Lower-rank Evil Beings`.

The second layer was called the "`Deep Realm`."

The rules of the `Deep Realm` began to deviate from common sense. The `Spirit Realm` and the `Star Realm` were both on this layer.

The innermost part of the `Deep Realm` was inhabited by even `High Tier` beings.

Most of the time, they stayed within their own territories and did not actively cross boundaries.

If a living being were to rashly enter their territory, it would...

This passage of text had been deliberately erased from the original book in his memory.

The author wrote a sentence after this paragraph:

"`Cultivators` who return from the `Deep Realm` will look in the `Mirror` more often.

Because they need to repeatedly confirm that the face in the `Mirror` still belongs to them."

Richard laid his pencil across the spine of the book. A fine layer of goosebumps rose on his arms.

He turned to the third layer, of which he had only deciphered two lines.

"The third layer cannot be spoken of, for to speak of it is to summon it."

"Upon reading this, please close the book and take a deep breath."

Richard stared at those two lines for a moment.

The original was written in the `Ancient Greek Language`, and his palms had been slightly sweaty when he deciphered it.

He closed the notebook and performed a full cycle of `Quadruple Breathing`.

After the four breaths, the inverted `Light Tree` in his chest returned to a stable rhythm.

He reopened the notebook and turned to the third section.

*Behind-the-Curtain Products*.

The author’s tone shifted, jumping from metaphysical descriptions back to a practical level.

For a `Cultivator`, the world behind the `Curtain` held other things besides danger.

The first category was minerals.

The author provided a short list.

"`Night Jade Stone`." Its ground powder was a core component of several key potions in `Alchemy`.

"`Lampwick Copper`." Its `Ether` conductivity was dozens of times higher than ordinary copper.

It was best suited for making artifacts that would bear a `Seal` long-term. The `Sphinx Lamp` was likely made of `Lampwick Copper`.

The second category was plants.

`Ashen Grass` was at the top of the list. The author’s evaluation of it was "cheap, plentiful, useful, and has a long shelf life."

A long list of names followed `Ashen Grass`.

"`Many-eyed Black Moss`." When ground and mixed into eye drops, it could grant an ordinary person temporary `Spiritual Vision`, at the cost of restless nights for the next few days.

"`Silent Fern`." Its leaves made no sound in the wind. When processed, it was a key medium in `Seal` rituals.

"`Blood Vine`." Found around `Blood Soaking Points`. When the vine was cut, it would ooze a red sap, which was a common supplementary potion for `Cultivators` of the `Path of Burning Blood`.

The third category was bone and flesh.

The description for this category was the briefest; the author seemed reluctant to write much about it.

"The bones and flesh of `Evil Beings`, with few exceptions, are mostly harmful.

Do not attempt to consume, wear, or store them long-term.

If there is a need to utilize them, please hand them over to a professional `alchemist` or `Inscription Master` for processing."

A line of small text was appended below: "This section is written for my students. If the reader is not my student, please consider yourself my student."

Richard couldn’t help but chuckle at the author’s tone.

He stretched his shoulders and neck, then finished his already-cold tea.